Shattering Dark
by Lencionim
Summary: Befriend the cast of Yu-Gi-Oh! Takes place in the dubbed version of the anime, with most emphasis on Joey and Yugi. (ONESHOT in second person. The reader decides whether it's friendship or romance.)


He walks up to you on the first day of the new term after you transfer to Domino High and asks if you play Duel Monsters. He's got a messy, blond mullet and a smirk on his face that makes you wonder if he's just making fun of you. He clarifies that he saw your deck when you pulled it out that morning as you dug in your schoolbag for a notebook. You notice that cocky smirk of his has somehow turned into a genuine smile, and some of the tension in your neck relaxes. He does a fair bit of bragging about his tournament standings, which mildly annoys you, but you decide not to say anything. He seems nice enough, and it's refreshing not to be ignored. You end up sitting with him and his small group of friends at lunch, which is admittedly a little awkward at first, but anything's better than dealing with New Kid Syndrome and eating by yourself. You munch on your sandwich as they chatter about strategies. You've only been playing for a short while. You never knew the game could get so complicated. You wonder how much of Joey's bragging was true.

Over the next few weeks, you open up to all of them, falling into a rhythm you didn't know you were capable of. You rebuild your deck, taking Joey and especially Yugi's advice, and discover that sometimes Yugi acts like an entirely different person. You don't tell the others you find this disturbing. Instead, you pretend not to notice, convincing yourself that it's just his way of dealing with stress. You have your own less than stellar ways of handling personal issues, so it's not like you have the right to judge.

Accidents start following you. You don't remember being this clumsy or absentminded, but somehow now you're always misplacing the things you need. It's more irritating than it is unsettling at first, but then it develops into a frequency that legitimately scares you. Secretly, you go in for a CAT scan, but the results turn up nothing unusual, which bothers you even more than if the doctors had found something—anything to explain your recent confusion and insomnia.

Your friends seem distant to you now, and you resent them for it. In a way that makes no sense but also perfect sense in your fragmented mind, you simultaneously long for their attention, and when they don't give it to you immediately, that resentment curdles into a raw and painful loathing.

The next few lunch breaks at school, you beat Tristan and Tea at Duel Monsters with ease, though you can't remember the cards you played once the duels are over. You say nasty things you don't mean. Joey challenges you next, adorning a serious expression you've never seen him make before. He draws a crappy hand on the first turn, but eventually gets a lucky streak and beats you. He doesn't seem proud of this achievement, which makes anger unexpectedly jolt in your chest. When you turn your insults towards Joey, Yugi makes a point to beat you within five turns before the bell rings. There can be no argument they're both leagues above you in skill. It hurts. After school that day, with a burning jealousy in your gut, you decide to stay away from all of them. You don't know where that idea comes from, but you follow through with your plan anyway.

For at least a week, though you can't be sure of the time anymore because everything mushes together, you keep your distance, eating alone on the roof until the day before midterms Joey corners you in the hall.

"What's goin' on with you?" he asks, posture leaned in concern. "You never acted so cold before. You know we're your friends, right? If somethin's wrong, you can tell us. Maybe we could help."

You tell him nothing is wrong, and you know he knows it's a lie.

Something breaks inside. You feel it crack and stab into itself like paper crumpled up for kindling. You wonder if it's your soul, and then wonder when you started believing in that sort of thing. In every sense, you run from Joey. You can feel him reaching out as you dash away, but he never catches you, or maybe he doesn't bother following. That moment is the loneliest of your life.

You weep into your pillow, thinking you have nothing to live for, wondering where everything went wrong. The rain pours down, and you succumb to something that has been smoldering in your chest for a while now. Afterwards, you're frigid and careless. You could swear you hear a laugh too sinister to be your own somewhere in the back of your mind. Instead of fear, you feel grateful. This is the release you've been waiting for.

Isn't it?

You imagine that question chomped bloody under dragon fangs. Then you don't think anymore. You merely exist, watching, waiting. For what, you don't know. There's a light you walk towards in your dreams, but you always turn away in the end despite being so eager to reach it. It calls out your name in Yugi's voice one night, and something like hope germinates inside your heart for the first time in what feels like a lifetime, even though you've awoken in a trembling sweat.

You want to go back. You miss your friends.

You tell yourself you can't go back. What's done is done, and you're better off now than you ever were back then.

You grow to hate your inner voice. It says it hates you back. This, for some reason, is terrifying. You don't argue with it again.

You can't remember challenging anyone to a duel, but here you are with Yugi as your opponent. Dark Magician Girl glances woefully at you from its place on the field in attack-mode. She turns back to her master, hesitant to finish you off. You have a trap card, so your life points are safe. Yugi calls out his attack and you reveal it. Then wish you hadn't, because it's successful. The graveyard moans as Dark Magician Girl floats back to her place in front of Yugi. He puts a card face-down without even looking at it, eyes piercing through the twilight into yours.

You wonder why you're dueling, wonder what could be at stake for Yugi to stand so threateningly before you. You wonder where Joey is, then you see him slumped against a nearby tombstone, head hung low. Yugi is staring at you like you're a murderer, and even though his expression is scary, deep down you find his ferocity liberating. The thing inside you lurches. You wince, take one step back, whisper Joey's name.

He twitches from his place on the ground, and Yugi stops abruptly, everything about him softening. He says your name. It's a question.

You say you don't know where you are. The relief on both their faces is visible as a stark-white paint stroke across black canvas. The world lightens. Still leaning exhaustedly against the tombstone, Joey smiles triumphantly, like he's just won the most challenging duel of his life.

"I knew we'd get ya back," says Joey.

You feel your forehead wrinkle in confusion in an absent sort of way.

"Keep fighting the shadows," says Yugi, returning to his not-quite-self. "Now that we know you're still in there, I can help you expel the darkness from your heart, but you must trust yourself. You must have faith!" He raises his hand, palm flat towards you. An Egyptian eye glows on his forehead. "Break free!"

With a tingly, floating sensation in your mind and your body feeling weak, you forfeit, and you're glad to do it. The world twists in your vision, and you swear you can hear Joey calling you as you fall. You never feel yourself hit the ground because someone catches you midway. Before you can pry your eyes open to see who it is, you find yourself in a hospital with an IV tucked in your arm. It itches. You're nauseous and disoriented, but something warm is wrapped over your fingers, and when you look down, you see Joey hunched over in a chair at your bedside, his hand clenched in a tireless grip over yours even though he's dead asleep and snoring.

You wake him because that can't possibly be a comfortable position to sleep in, and after mumbling something incoherent, he rejoices once he realizes you're the one who woke him.

Joey calls the others in, and Yugi tells you the truth: that he solved the Millennium Puzzle and now there's an ancient pharaoh living inside him, and that sometimes his friends get dragged into dangerous games of magic because of it. He apologizes, but you see no need for him to do so. His explanation makes the craziness of this school term make a whole lot more sense, even if it's totally ridiculous as far as clarifications go.

You're half-convinced they're all insane, but then you tell yourself that even if that's the case, you're in good company.


End file.
